Questions after melee at Montrose Beach

Video: McCarthy speaks on Montrose Beach incident

Chicago Police superintendent Garry McCarthy spoke on the large weekend disturbance at Montrose Beach, along with recent gun seizures, local violence and the release of police misconduct files to the public.

Chicago Police superintendent Garry McCarthy spoke on the large weekend disturbance at Montrose Beach, along with recent gun seizures, local violence and the release of police misconduct files to the public.

Edna Velazquez looked with frustration at the debris still scattered across the park at Montrose Beach Monday morning as a dozen seagulls picked at the six-pack rings and hundreds of bottle caps stamped into muddy grass.

Velazquez was asked by Chicago police Sunday night to close her Mexican food stand and restaurant early when a melee broke out among a large crowd gathered for an illegal concert.

Four police officers were slightly injured, a squad car was damaged and five people were charged in what Velasquez and others said was he most recent in a series of violent incidents at the popular beach. Two women were shot near Montrose Beach two weeks ago.

“My employees don’t want to work for me anymore,” declared Velazquez, who said her family business, Daniel’s Mexican Food, has lost all but one of its eight non-family employees. “They don’t think it’s safe.”

Sunday’s violence on the North Side prompted fresh questions about police staffing and crowd control tactics just a week after a bloody Independence Day weekend left left 82 shot, 16 of them fatally, across the city. At a press conference meant to highlight the Police Department’s gun seizures, Superintendent Garry McCarthy grew frustrated as reporters kept questioning him about what went wrong at Montrose Beach.

“I'm trying to tell you all about gun violence here in the city, which is our number one thing,” McCarthy said at the Grand Crossing district station on the South Side. “We had people who died over the weekend, and a disturbance at a park is something that we'll fix moving forward, no two ways about it. But we have a problem here, and I'd like to bring attention to it.”

In the fallout from the Montrose Beach melee, 10 males were criminally charged, two with felonies for aggravated battery to a police officer. The two Aurora men, Efrain Saucedo, 23, and Emmanuel Lopez, 19, were seen throwing bottles that struck two officers as they responded to the disturbance, police said.

In addition, a 17-year-old boy was charged as a juvenile with felony criminal damage to property and misdemeanor mob action. Police said seven other men were charged with misdemeanors related to the incident.

Meanwhile, Ald. James Cappleman, whose 46th Ward includes Montrose Beach, praised Sunday evening’s police response but expressed concern that nearby Chicago Park District parking lots allow large crowds to gather at Montrose Beach more easily than at other lakefront beaches.

“Look at Oak Street Beach. Do you see this many parking spots there? Look at Lincoln Park. There just aren't this many parking spots in such a concentrated area in other parts of the city,” Cappleman said. “I want the Park District and the police department to come up with a plan to discourage that many people from driving down there and parking.”

Drawn by chatter on social media, the crowd gathered at Montrose Beach on Sunday for the Tamborazo Beach Party concert, but Chicago Park District officials said the festival didn't have permits to perform in the park.

The melee started about 7:30 p.m. when six officers on bicycles waded into the crowd to break up a fight, police said. A call soon went out about a “man with a gun” and officers began searching for the man who matched the description on the police radios, officials said.

At some point during the search, people in the crowd started throwing bottles, rocks, cans and other objects, police said. A supervisor ordered the officers out of the crowd, and a “10-1” call was broadcast on police radios, code for an officer in need of assistance.

Officers from across Chicago – including detectives, specialized units and a police helicopter that patrols the city -- responded.

On Monday, McCarthy said the department had a sufficient number of officers at Montrose Beach to quell the fracas.

“What I can tell you is, Montrose and the rest of the parks around the city are receiving significant attention, and will continue to do so,” McCarthy told reporters.

Officers were already near the beach to respond to what McCarthy described as an uptick in “quality-of-life type of offenses” that have been going on in the area.